Complete 4 part interview with Beth Patterson

The Interviews with Notable New Orleans musicians is back as previously mentioned.

All 4 episodes of an interview with Beth Patterson are now up.

She is hard to summarize since her talents are wide ranging and include writing and having published novels and poetry. There is a great deal of knowledge and thought on a lot of things. As well as this she is a killer performer in many languages and styles, as well as the performance of her prolific output of songs of her own.

Anyway, it’s all very interesting and she has a lot of thinking, ideas, and experiences that go into and come out in her art. Check out her ideas in this 4 part podcast.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

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New Banjo Studio podcast: guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel

Here is episode 3 of the podcast I host for The Banjo Studio. This week I got to speak with guitarist, Kurt Rosenwinkel.

Banjo Studio says:

Kurt Rosenwinkel is one of the top jazz guitarists performing today. Kurt has been a Verve recording artist as a leader, has started his own record company Heartcore Records, and as a sideman has recorded with artists as diverse as Q-Tip, Eric Clapton, Gary Burton, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, and many, many more.

Take a listen as host Jonathan Freilich talks to Kurt about his compositional method, how he learned to play guitar, what he is working on now, and more.

The Banjo studio sells Collings guitars and Deering banjos and accessories. The guitar player charge of the site you are looking at now fully gets behind a Collings guitar. Guitars don’t get better!

Podcasts and Donation buttons

I am now producing 2 podcasts:

1) Interviews with Notable New Orleans Musicians- is my original podcast of long form interviews and oral histories with many of the fascinating musicians and related artists of New Orleans. There was a layoff of some time but now it is back in earnest. A couple segments of interview with drummer, Carlo Nuccio just went up and, in the next day or so there will be a form interview with all round musician/writer/poet and Bazouki player, Beth Patterson. This podcast has been going for 10 years now

2) The Double MacGuffin Film Podcast-with Henry Griffin. These are conversations/ reviews about interesting movies. Again here, for life reasons there has been a two year layoff. We are back to it and there will be one coming up on the films Safe and Silent Running. This podcast has been running for 3 years and this site is taking over the hosting from Nolascape where it has been for a couple of years.

I host another:

… and record and edit a 3rd podcast for The Banjo Studio. So far we have interviewed Ryan Cavanaugh, Danny Barnes, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Mary Gauthier. We have two more immediately in the works and they are all very interesting.

The Banjo Studio is run by David Bandrowski, who also produces the podcasts so check those out.

All of this is some work and I have done it asking nothing— but you will now find across the website donation buttons like this functional one here…

Donate

I appreciate the support for any of this and my work in composition, film, music, recording to keep the operations going.

So, if you feel that you get anything from large amount of content on this site, donations would really help the cause.

Podcast Interview with Carlo Nuccio-pt. 1 & 2 available now!

I am back to my series of podcasts started in 2010. There has been a long layoff. Here is part 1 of an interview I conducted with the great drummer, producer, singer, writer, Carlo Nuccio.

The interview, pt 1. is here…

Pt 2. is here…

I will get to the next section within a few days.

And I am in the middle of conducting another great one which you will be notified of shortly.

All the podcasts can be accessed here…

Or from the menu link that says podcast above.

Or from the apple podcast engine-

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Podcast interview with Danny Barnes at Banjo Studio

Carrying on from the Ryan Cavanaugh, this fantastic conversation with banjo phenom, Danny Barnes just posted.

Banjo Studio says…

Songwriter/banjoist Danny Barnes is always experimenting and trying to become a better musician. Host Jonathan Freilich talks with Danny on his path from traditional banjo styles to how he created his own sound.  Danny recently released his Man On Fire album which is killer. This  was produced by Dave Matthews and  he is featured as a guest artist as well as Bill Frisell, John Paul Jones (bass and mandolin), and drummer Matt Chamberlain.

Danny Barnes

Now host of Banjo Studio Podcasts- this week with Ryan Cavanaugh

I’m back to doing music interview podcasts. This time for BanjoStudio.com. This week is number 1- modern banjo virtuoso Ryan Cavanaugh about his journey to becoming one of the most innovative banjoists in history. 

Banjo Studio sells Deering Banjos, Collings guitars and accessories. They are at- https://www.banjostudio.com.

To get directly to the podcast-

https://www.banjostudio.com/blogs/banjo-studio-podcast/banjo-studio-podcast-episode-1-ryan-cavanaugh

Getting back after carnival chaos

What a season!

Much left out of posts and calendar updates but here is what is coming up.

We will be recording the James Joyce opera in April- “Darling, please don’t be offended at what I wrote.” that I composed for Bloomsday 2019. We will be recording at Andrew Gilchrist’s studio for a David Gamble film to be shown at the remounting of the opera at Bloomsday 2020.

Speaking of Gamble, our film, ESPLANADE, now has the vinyl albums of the soundtrack out in two levels of collectors edition. There are a total of 100 numbered and signed. The first 10 are available with hand drawn art on titanium by Gamble. Those sre att a higher price. The other 90 sell for $100 and contain prints of the titanium art, original signed leaflets and a completely individual design black and white vinyl recording of the soundtrack. Let us know if you want one.

We continue to curate the music series at Luna Libre, a fantastic spot for Flaming Margherita’s and other Mexican food delights at 3600 St. Claude. The lineup so far has included, Phil Degruy, Mark Bingham, Dayna Kurtz, Beth Paxton, Alex McMurray, and Dick Deluxe. Here is a flyer with upcoming artists listed (correction on the date that says Matt Booth- that will be Blake Amos)…

I was also a featured guest on the Troubled Men podcast. An excellent entertainment weekly run by Rene Coman and Manny Chevrolet.

Check the calendar page for all shows coming up. Best spring to you.

New Years Eve- pre countdown, all ages event 7-10pm at Luna Libre

There will be a very nice party atmosphere event, kid friendly, from 7-10pm.

Alex Mcmurray solo

Jonathan Freilich solo

Then

THE TOM PAINES!

Continuing series of music at Luna Libre- Music with Dayna Kurtz - Tacos!

Luna Libre is a new food and music spot on St. Claude Ave. I have been asked to do some curating for the Tuesday series. Come over the great food and music.

It is to be a really good listening room and the next 4 weeks will have some great artists (including the Author tomorrow.

Tuesdays 7-9pm:

This week:

November 19- Dayna Kurtz (blues and original music)

TACOS everybody!

Curating a series of music at Luna Libre- Music- Tacos!

Luna Libre is a new food and music spot on St. Claude Ave. I have been asked to do some curating for the Tuesday series. Come over the great food and music.

It is to be a really good listening room and the next 4 weeks will have some great artists (including the Author tomorrow.

Tuesdays 7-9pm:

November 5- Jonathan Freilich Solo (guitar and songs)

November 12- Alex Mcmurray & Luke Allen (Bards of the neighborhood)

November 19- Dayna Kurtz (blues and original music)

November 26- Joe Cabral and Friend- (brilliant musician and robust pillar of The Iguanas)

TACOS everybody!

ESPLANADE at Improv Conference 2019

The screening and Q & A went extremely well. We hope to have more coming up but so far thanks for all the support and look for soundtrack announcements and more.

Is strongly encourage a look at the fantastic program during the conference. It really offers an edifying program that will somewhere have appeal for folks from all walks with a plethora of curiosities and great speakers.

ESPLANADE showtimes at New Orleans Film Festival: Daily 2:30pm & 9:30pm

ESPLANADE, a film by David Gamble and Jonathan Freilich is showing at the film festival this week and next.

It shows at the Micro Cinema in the CAC daily at 2:30pm and 9:30pm from the 16th-22nd of October.

Information about ESPLANADE is here…

007 is back on the scene- Oct 18-20 DBA, New Orleans & Pensacola, Fla

Do you love ROCKSTEADY music?

007 does too.

Jeffrey Clemens is back around so we have a show Friday the 18th at DBA, 10pm. We will also play two nights at the Paradise Inn, Pensacola, Fla. Oct 19-20.

For those of you who missed the sensation of 007 in the heyday it comprised of:

Jeffrey Clemens (G-Love & the Special Sauce)- drums/vocals
Alex Mcmurray (Alex Mcmurray)-guitar/vocals
Joe Cabral (The Iguanas etc.)- bass/ vocals
Jonathan Freilich (see website)- Guitar

And was greater than the sum of the parts (which was confusing for people so oriented toward the diminutive.)

More on 007 here…

New Interview with Jonathan Freilich. Low life journalism on Frenchmen St in the 1990s

Low Life Journalism is a website run by Laura Difazio, architect and journalist. She has been doing a wonderful series about interesting times in a certain part of New Orleans. Her interview style and writing are really exposing a few things not getting coverage elsewhere. Very worth looking at if you have a thing for all things New Orleans.

This time around she interviewed a certain Jonathan Freilich.

The interview is here… and features photos by Mani Lander from Mas Mamones, spoken of elsewhere on this site.

From the music interview side of this site we would like to say that even without a focus on this author, her work is really something!

Laura Difazio

She interviewed me a few years back fro offbeat magazine. That interview is available through a link on her website.

Getting back after Summer

The calendar has lapsed. After a very busy start to the year which involved composing and mounting two operas-’ The Coronation’, ‘ Darling, please don’t be offended at what I wrote.’, and finishing a film, as well as some other interesting projects, we needed a mental break. A disconnection- vaguely, or at least some slippage.

Now the calendar will be back on and hopefully emails to those who sign on.

Look out for showings of Esplanade, a 16mm film by myself and photographer and artist David Gamble.

'Esplanade', film by Gamble and Freilich, accepted into New Orleans film festival

The film we worked on together has been accepted. The date isn’t set. It is in the Louisiana shorts category. Our film runs 35mins. There is a taster in the post below if you haven’t checked it out.

It is a tight audio visual collaboration between David Gamble and I. The film is in 16mm. The sound is mixture of electro acoustic music and some pieces with a few great players in town- Nobu Ozaki, Martin Krusche, Cyrus Nabipoor, Stephanie Nilles, Phil DeGruy, Glenn Hartman, Annie Ellicott.

We are happy, it’s competitive. Stay tuned and we will give the date of that showing as well as one other coming up in November.

The New Orleans Film Festival runs October 16-22. It’s a great event. Here is their blurb on their website…

James Joyce's Dirty Letters: subject of my new short Opera for Bloomsday,NOLA 6/14-6/16

“Darling, Please do not be offended (by what I wrote.)”

-is the full title. This will be performed for the Bloomsday celebration in New Orleans. Bloomsday is the annual celebration of James Joyce’s groundbreaking masterpiece, Ulysses. The festival is now being handled by the collaborator in two of my previous operas (‘Bang the Law’, ee me and pollock thee’) , Chris Lane.

I have had the idea for a long time and finally the opportunity came up to stage the piece. Libretto and music by yours truly. All the text however is by Mr. James Joyce. The lyric is totally unexpurgated. Immoral restoration theater type directness for our tightening times…except of course- of and for the common people.

The opera is also to remember the great victory over victorian censorship of the book.

The piece will be at the church at the Hotel Peter and Paul in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. There will be two performance on the 14th and two on the 16th of June.

Great artists have been assembled to work on it.

Zara Zemmels- Mezzo-Soprano
Nelson Gonzalez- Joyce
Tim Robertson- Guitar
Janna Saslaw- Flutes
David Gamble- projections and design
Joan Long- Lighting/ stage design/ performance consultant

Jonathan Freilich- composer/librettist
Chris Lane- producer and set builder.

Extremely important here is our gofundme campaign to raise the money for the production. We hope that if you support arts in New Orleans, or are a theater fan, or a literature fan, or an independent/ experimental/contemporary opera buff, or prefer that your ribald times aren’t impinged upon, or support diversity in music, or the livelihood and development of the arts in general, that you will contribute. Any amount helps greatly.

The link is here…

Zara Zemmels

Tim Robertson

David Gamble

janna saslaw

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Shows heading into the first weekend of Jazzfest.

It’s that time of year again. Here are some events to add to your entertainment schedules into the first weekend of the festival:

Mon 4/22- with King James and the Special Men- Saturn Bar 10pm
Tues 4/23- with Martin Krusche Band- Hi Ho Lounge 9pm
Thurs 4/25- Trio with James Singleton and Skerik- Zeitgeist Theater and Bar-9pm
Thurs 4/25- New Orleans Klezmer All Stars- Siberia Lounge 11pm
Saturday 4/27- with the midnight disturbers- Jazzfest 1:20pm
Saturday 4/27- with James Singleton Trio- Zeitgeist Theater and Lounge- 9pm
Sunday 4/28- with The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars- jazzfest lagniappe stage-6pm
Sunday 4/28- with the valparaiso men’s chorus- siberia lounge 10pm
Monday 4/29- solo guitar- Bywater Bakery 10am

French Quarter fest performances.

Check the schedule page-

But- it will include, the klezmer all stars at the GE stage on Friday of the Fest. Saturday at 4 there will be an interview of guitarist ,carl leblanc and I at the interview stage. Also a solo morning gig at The Bywater Bakery and Sunday night at Blue Nile with Andy j Forest.

The Coronation goes up at Music Box- Operatic Collab. by Bernard Pearce and Jonathan Freilich

Shows are April 5 and 6. It’s an intriguing idea and I have been lucky to be a large contributor, compositionally, on the project.

Other performers include Helen Gillet, Janna Saslaw, Anais St. John, Jennie Lavine, Julie Odell, and Trendafilka.